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now, the other question is, is 1.75" diameter pole will be strong enough for someone above 150lbs????

O heck yeah, unless it's poorly cured or weak for some other reason. Normal bamboo is really strong. I'm about 180 and have made tripods out of 1" stuff.

Look the pieces over really well for cracks and splits. These Pier 1 poles are made to be decorative and not as structural. That's my only concern. I haven't seen them in person though. They're probably fine.

Also I have to emphasize that making your tripod too splayed puts stress on the bend. You want it to be as vertical as possible and still stable, that way you put stress on the compression of the bamboo which is much more stable. IMHO that is...

Also, I know it's not sexy but putting rubber chair tips on the ends makes it much more stable. I recently did this and was surprised how much difference it made. Would also protect the ends from cracking/splitting.

O heck yeah, unless it's poorly cured or weak for some other reason. Normal bamboo is really strong. I'm about 180 and have made tripods out of 1" stuff.

Look the pieces over really well for cracks and splits. These Pier 1 poles are made to be decorative and not as structural. That's my only concern. I haven't seen them in person though. They're probably fine.

Also I have to emphasize that making your tripod too splayed puts stress on the bend. You want it to be as vertical as possible and still stable, that way you put stress on the compression of the bamboo which is much more stable. IMHO that is...

Also, I know it's not sexy but putting rubber chair tips on the ends makes it much more stable. I recently did this and was surprised how much difference it made. Would also protect the ends from cracking/splitting.

that was is concern too, they are suppose to be decorative...hmmmmm by any chance do you have piere 1 in ur neck of the woods??? other retail here where i live.i haven't had any other luck in the ...

1.75" is WAAAAAAYY bigger than PDA uses and PDA reports a weight of 160+

I don't think there is much difference between "structural" bamboo and "decorative" bamboo--it's in the discretion of the user. Other than how it was cured to prevent cracks and splits--which aren't very decorative. So, pending hppyfngy's report, I'm quite optimistic. And they come in sets of three!!! How cool is that!?!?!?

"Pips"

Mountains have a dreamy way
Of folding up a noisy day​In quiet covers, cool and gray.

I picked some up today out of curiosity. I may have... manipulated the packaging to get the biggest and best shape pieces possible However they're actually a 4 pack, not a 3 pack which was surprising. I made sure it was the same one posted above.

Once I picked them up I started experimenting and had a friend show me the tripod lashing. However after setting it up enough to see if it would be feasible, I decided against using them. They are in fact "true" bamboo, but I just don't have enough confidence in them. After building the 2x2 stand and feeling how stable it was compared to these I opted out. I'll return them in the next few days.

Bottom line, if you've already made one out of bamboo and slept in it, you probably won't have a problem using these. For me, I can't rationalize downgrading my stability for an upgrade in ease of transport (bamboo is much lighter). Others may have a different opinion but I simply don't trust them structurally after using my 2x2 tripod.

Well, I'm sorry to report that I got to my local Pier 1 today and I was thoroughly unimpressed with the bamboo.

All of it was flimsy and probably half of the pieces had pretty much full length splits in them. Out of the thirty or forty pieces they had in stock I might have been able to pick out six that would hold up without my being worried about them. Also the red ones have this crappy shellac finish that flakes off all over the place. I had it all over my hands after handling the stuff.

I suspect that this bamboo was allowed to just air dry. Too bad. Wish I had better news...

Also went by another store called "World Market" and they had the same quality stuff.